Monday, February 13, 2017

Justin Moldow, Creator of Liberty Hangout talks with LCI about their 2 Year Anniversary

Justin Moldow is the creator of Liberty Hangout

Justin Moldowtalks withLiberty Chronicle Independentabout the two year anniversary of Liberty news and occasional-satire-article website, Liberty Hangout. Justin gives us insight on the history of the website and the future. For more information on Liberty Hangout, you can visit theirwebsite and follow them on Twitter and Like the page on Facebook.DM: Welcome Justin, thanks for taking a moment to chat with LCI about
Liberty Hangout and its two year anniversary. Let's introduce you to
the readers a little about your history and how you came about Liberty
Hangout?

JM: I grew up a right-wing conservative, and was very enamored by the
leadership of George W. Bush when I was a child. As someone from the New
York Metropolitan area, the tremors of 9/11 are still with me to this
day, and I looked to the leadership of our President to help our nation
stand strong. For a long time, I was an ardent supporter of the wars in
both Iraq and Afghanistan, and was a proponent of the surveillance
state. But I was young and naive, and after the re-election of President
Obama in 2012, I began my journey into libertarian theory when I
started reading books by Judge Andrew Napolitano. When I realized many
of my former beliefs were either incorrect or not taken to their
rational conclusions, my quench for truth only continued to grow. From
there, I read the works of Ron Paul, Adam Kokesh, Murray Rothbard,
Ludwig von Mises, Tom Woods, and Stefan Molyneux, and felt so
transcended by my journey, that I wanted to share it with the world.

DM: What was your biggest inspirations to start LH, which was formerly the Young Jeffersonians?

JM: A lot of our recent followers don't
know it, but the site was actually founded as YoungJeffersonians.com in
February of 2015, before changing to Liberty Hangout in May of that
year. I was inspired by our founding fathers to continue to promote
their ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And my only
goal when I started the site was for it to be my own personal website
to share my political beliefs. If you would have told be back in 2015
that Liberty Hangout would have a following of close to 60,000 and one
of the top Alexa ratings of all the competing libertarian websites just two years later,
I would have thought you were crazy. I never intended for Liberty
Hangout to grow into a brand, but people have enjoyed our unique content
so much that it was inevitable.

Screenshot of Young Jeffersonians, before changed to Liberty Hangout

DM: What has helped evolve Liberty Hangout to what it is today?

JM: Liberty Hangout really got a name for itself during the 2016
presidential election, when we were the first libertarian outlet to
refuse to support the Johnson/Weld ticket. In many ways, we started the
#NeverJohnson movement, and will likely always be remembered for this.
While a lot of people were initially enraged by our hesitance towards
the ticket, over time, it seems we now reflect the majority opinion in
libertarian circles, and without our efforts, I think we might still
have one too many libertarians running around saying that libertarianism
is "fiscally conservative, socially liberal." And over the course of
the 2016 election, we saw our following double as a result.

DM: What's your favorite aspect of LH currently, and
what do you hope to change in the upcoming future, if any changes or
additions?

JM: My favorite aspect of Liberty Hangout is the strong fellowship we
have amongst our staff. James, Chris, and Michael are my best friends,
and we all confide in each other on a daily basis. Having a healthy
relationship with your team members makes what you do that much more
enjoyable.

DM: What predictions
does the crew at Liberty Hangout have for the future of the Libertarian
Party later this year and going into next year?

JM:
After seeing the debacle that was the Johnson campaign, my expectations
for the party are frankly bleak, to say the least. They decided they
wanted to market mostly to Bernie Sanders supporters last year, and now
that a Republican is back in office, it appears they still have the same
intentions.

DM:
We have seen an influx (at least online through Facebook groups
notably) what feels like a "left" or "SJW" major presence increase since
the 2016 election. What is your group's ideas and theories as to how
and why this has occurred? Do you expect this to be a trend to stay
around for a while?

JM:
I believe this is largely due in part to a misrepresentation of
libertarianism. So many advertise the philosophy as something that it's
not, which causes moderates and low-tax liberals to believe that they're
libertarians. I expect that either the word "libertarian" will lose its
meaning, or those who know that libertarianism is a philosophy grounded
on the idea of property rights and self-ownership will fight arduously
to reclaim it.

DM:
What would be the Liberty Hangout's ideal candidate to run for the
Libertarian Party during the 2020 or 2024 election? Should the
Libertarian Party even consider a major 2020 Presidential run given the
massive amount of support President Trump is getting from the "right?"

JM:
Given that the Libertarian Party realistically has no chance of winning
a presidential election, they should focus on one thing and one thing
only, and that is spreading the libertarian philosophy. They should
nominate an effective messenger that knows how to market the philosophy
well. If Trump's first term in office turns out to largely be a positive
one, it will present the Libertarian Party with a challenge, since
there will be a large block of libertarians who will want to help get
Trump re-elected. Because of this, I foresee the party moving even
further left in 2020 than they were in 2016.

DM: We understand here
at LCI that this work isn't easy, and it's very costly. What can you
tell readers about how to help keep LH going and what can they
contribute?

JM: Since we are huge proponents of capitalism, if you're willing to contribute to us, we want to give you guys something great in return.
If you go to LibertyHangout.org/Store, we got some really cool t-shirts
and our famous "Taxation Is Theft" snapback, which are available at
great prices. If you purchase some merchandise, encourage your friends
to do so as well, and wear it proudly, that would be the biggest help we
could ever ask for. And you would also help spread the message of
liberty to all corners of the country, since all of our apparel are
great conversation starters.

DM: Thanks so
much for spending time answering our questions and we hope for 20+ more
years of Liberty Hangout. It is now being featured on Liberty Chronicle
Independent's news aggregation feeds.

In
closing, if you could give one message to the entire Libertarian Party
for them to hear, personally from you, what would that be?

JM:
Please take some marketing courses to understand your target
demographics. Not everyone is going to be receptive to the message of
liberty, in the same way that not everyone is going to want to buy an
iPhone. You need to know who is most likely to buy your product if you
want to be successful.